The present invention resides in a portable hand held reading unit having a display screen for displaying text encoded on transferable memory means and, more particularly relates to a device capable of being used by the visually impaired wherein means are provided for presenting text from novels, periodicals or other sources for reading by a user in such a way that the characters of the text displayed may be altered in size permitting the user to read text that which otherwise would be too uncomfortable or even impossible to see.
Individuals who suffer visual impairments yet who are not totally blind do not enjoy the ability to readily pick up books, commercially available periodicals and newspapers or the like for the purpose of casual or even extensive reading. Casual reading most frequently occurs while a person is in a waiting room or in transit on a train or in a plane or other environments in which reading materials may be readily carried and therefore easily employed to productively pass time. Extensive reading on the other hand may occur at home or in the office for the purpose of gaining sought after information, such as in the case of research. Regardless of where one chooses to read and under what circumstances, visually impaired persons would be greatly served by a portable, hand held unit which would allow them see text in a comfortable font size because commercially available printed books, periodicals and newspapers are often printed with very small text usually on the order of approximately three point or so requiring an individual even with normal eyesight to strain while reading. Although visually impaired, these individuals nevertheless possess the ability to read quite well if text is presented for reading in large enough font sizes. Additionally, since the vision of each individual may be impaired to a different degree than another, variable font sizes should be provided for allowing each user to read comfortably in relation to their own degree of visual impairment. While a visually impaired person may be able to use alternative media sources for obtaining daily news or periodical literature, such as often found in the form of audio tapes or the like, such sources however fail to allow the visually impaired individual the opportunity to exercise their reading skills. Moreover, such tapes do not allow the user to select a pace comfortable to his or her understanding and compression. Additionally, audio tape libraries do not always have the most current information available such as in the case of newspapers where timely dissemination of information is most important to its value.
Some headway has been made in the area of electronic data storage of text for portable reading devices, but the needs of those who require additional aid for reading materials such as aforementioned have simply not been met. These also include those individuals who simply suffer from vision fatigue caused by eyestrain attributable to the constant stress brought about by reading text having a small font size. With the advent of graphic scanners and character recognition programs as well as high volume, inexpensive, storage media, such as 256K ROM and RAM chips, the ability now exists to download voluminous textual information and data into transferable memory media. Thus, visually impaired individuals would be greatly served if they could readily read from a portable hand held unit in which means are provided for easily varying the font size of the characters displayed on the portable reading device.
Although devices in which digitally encoded text is displayed on a screen of a hand held unit are known, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,855,725 issued to Emilio Fernandez on Aug. 8, 1989, these devices nevertheless likewise fail to meet the particular needs of the visually impaired because they use a standard fixed font size. Additionally, the device disclosed in this patent does not allow the unit to be taken out of a designated range from the host computer, such as on a train or plane, since it uses an active communication link in the form of an IR transceiver linked with the host computer.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,159,417 issued to David Ribincam, an electronic book is disclosed in which a magazine or other printed media is displayed on a thin screen. It should be realized that this patent also fails to accommodate the needs of the visually impaired or the visually strained individual by requiring the user to read text characters presented in a fixed font size rather than allowing the user to select the font size most suited to his or her needs.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a portable hand held reading unit having a screen and memory capable of storing large volumes of textual data and subsequently presenting the text on the screen in selectably different font sizes according to instructions readily issued by the user.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a reading unit of the aforementioned type in which means are provided for easily selecting a different font size by depressing a button on the unit to advance the character display to the next successive size.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a unit of the aforementioned type wherein means are provided to alternatively permit the data stored in the unit to be presented audibly as well as visually.
Still a further object of the present invention is to provide a reading unit of the aforementioned type wherein data may be downloaded into it from either a mass data storage base or an insertable transportable storage medium.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a reading unit of the aforementioned type in which text can be electronically marked in memory such that that point in the text may be first displayed when the unit is re-used.